7 facing charges in sex sting in Nixa

3 men, 4 women cited in August undercover prostitution operation

Sep. 19, 2013

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Seven people arrested in a prostitution sting operation were charged three weeks after receiving citations in Nixa.

Christian County Associate Prosecuting Attorney Joseph Flees filed charges against three men for the misdemeanor of patronizing prostitution. Four women, the youngest 19 and the oldest 32, are charged with the class B misdemeanor of prostitution.

The Combined Ozarks Multi-jurisdictional Enforcement Team, or COMET, contacted Nixa police and the Christian County Sheriff’s Department about setting up the arrests Aug. 23 at a hotel in Nixa.

Undercover officers used a website to post and view advertisements for escort service.

According to identical statements of probable cause that a COMET officer filed against three of the women, an undercover officer called the phone number on an ad for an escort and spoke with the woman who answered. The officer told the woman on the phone that he and two of his friends were looking to “party tonight.”

“The female asked how much of a ‘donation’ he was talking about. She stated that the donation would be at least $400,” the probable cause statement says.

The women allegedly showed up at the sting location later that day. The women and undercover officers reportedly negotiated a price of $500 for the women to have sex with the three men.

“(An undercover officer) made it very clear we wanted to engage in sexual intercourse with the three women,” the probable cause statement says.

The Christian County prosecutor’s office mailed citations to the women suspected in the case on Sept. 12. The prosecutor also mailed notices to the three men arrested in a sting on the same day. All three of the men were lured by an advertisement that a COMET officer wrote advertising prostitution services.

According to the statements of probable cause against them, the three men went to the hotel separately.

When they arrived at the designated room, a female task force officer greeted them.

One of the arrested men, a 50-year-old from Ozark, grew suspicious before he was taken into custody. The officer who wrote the probable cause statement declared that he “appeared to be very nervous.”

“He walked in the room and looked all around it. He then inspected the fire alarm. He asked (the undercover female officer) why the fire alarm was making noise,” the statement reads.

The man then agreed to pay $50 to have sex with the woman he thought was a prostitute. After the money changed hands, officers entered the room and arrested him.

Two of the arrested men appeared in Christian County Associate Circuit Court on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to patronizing prostitution. They were fined $116.50 each and sentenced to one year of unsupervised probation. The third man, a 43-year-old from Republic, will be arraigned Oct. 16.

The four women suspected of prostitution will be arraigned Oct. 16. The prosecutor also seeks to have one of the suspects brought to court for violating terms of probation from a previous, unrelated offense.